Rand: GOP Must Be 'The Party of Passion'

Speaking at the Reagan President Library on Friday night, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) presented a more diverse vision of Republicanism – but more importantly, called for a Republicanism with passion. “Reagan never diluted what he had to say,” Paul explained. “He didn’t say, ‘Maybe if you get time, maybe you could think about tearing that wall down.’ We need to be the party of passion.”

Paul also called for the GOP to reach out to heretofore untapped ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural groups. “When the Republican Party looks like the rest of America, we will win again. When we have people with tattoos and without tattoos, with ties and without ties, with suits and in blue jeans, then we win nationally … If we want to win nationally again, we will have to reach out to a diverse nation and welcome African Americans, Asians, Latinos into our party. Latinos will come to the GOP when we treat them with dignity, when we embrace immigrants as hard workers who are an asset to our country.”

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Paul added that the way to reach out to groups like African-Americans would be to “go into every community and fight for better schools.”

Paul did say he liked President Obama personally. “I don’t like his politics,” he said. “I don’t like his policies. But I do like him.”